Early education powerfully influences future education : parents and nurses are not sufficiently alive to the failings of young children; when these children are at length ushered into the school-room, a governess has great trouble in endeavouring to correct the bad habits contracted in the nursery. In most instances a preceptres has several pupils to educate; her task is then, indeed, one of great difficulty. Early education is undoubtedly the most important, and yet it is often left to the unenlightened and incompetent; children thus acquire a distaste for learning, their teachers have little or no influence over them; all is discomfort in the school-room. Then, again, incompetent persons do not understand the value or importance of early education.

It does not require more time or trouble to inculcate just and useful ideas in the minds of children, than to admit of their imbibing false ones; all depends on the choice of the governess.

Great discretion should ever be used in the presence of children; they may appear not to attend to what is passing, but nothing is lost on them. It is too often forgotten that the infant mind is in a passive state, and apt to receive all impressions; the innate faculties are so weak that they cannot re-act, and young children are influenced by what they learn, whether good or evil.

Children may be compared to fine blocks of marble, of which statuaries can make either gods or monsters-parents nurses, and governesses are the sculptors of the great work of education; but those individuals who are intrusted with the care of children in their early age, may do far more injury than the subalterns who are to free the marble from its primitive roughness; for their work is not like that of the statuaries, confined to the exterior, their actions, their examples, their conversation, convey such forcible impressions on the youthful mind, that, later on, all the art and all the talents of a governess cannot efface them.

Young children should, therefore, receive a sound and

well-directed education, in which care should be taken to develop the heart and mind by the acquisition or habit of sterling qualities which are to serve as a basis for their whole education.

Religious principles should be instilled as soon as the infant intelligence admits that its thoughts and affections be turned to the Almighty: for this purpose, children should be early accustomed to associate with their amusements, the sentiment of pious gratitude to their Creator, and to associate with their faults the idea of future judgement. It is, above all, essential to give a moral and religious direction to youthful study; to take every opportunity of developing children's conscience, and to impress on their minds the thoughts of a just, good, and omnipresent God.

The sterling qualities to which I allude, and which are so essential in education, are obedience, attention, judgment, and regularity. Make a child docile you will render it attentive: when the habit of attention is acquired, the infant mind can be duly improved, correct ideas instilled, and the memory and jugdment exercised. Regularity not only saves time, but doubles its value.

I have already observed that governesses seldom have the good fortune to commence and finish the education of their pupils; when, therefore, they undertake their new charge, their first care should be to study the primitive and natural qualities of each pupil, and to distinguish those that are innate from those that are acquired.

Here, the advice and co-operation of a mother become indispensable, for whatever may be the acquirements of a governess, however superior her talents, however great her accomplishments, she cannot be immediately acquainted with the dispositions of her pupils: her first care should be to study their dispositions, and she may consider herself fortunate, if she has not to rectify the errors of her predecessors. I repeat that her first object should be to ascertain what are the innate qualities and faculties of the

children confided to her care. Though it may be said that habit is second nature, yet governesses may feel assured that innate qualities are more lasting and powerful than those that are acquired, and they should, therefore, diligently observe the different dispositions of their pupils.

All is not acquired; children are born with good or evil propensities; and it behoves every governess to ascertain what are these propensities, that she may be enabled to correct the evil and improve the good.

If right feelings have been cultivated in early age, the work, so happily commenced, only requires to be continued; but, if children have been left to chance, and evil inclinations allowed to take root, then, indeed, has the governess an arduous task to perform.

I trust it will be clearly understood that by education, is not meant the acquisition of foreign languages, and other accomplishments; but by education is meant the development, and habit of those solid qualities which must tend to our present and eternal welfare.

The great object of education should be the happiness of the pupils, but as I have said in my former work, that happiness must be made to spring from their own good conduct; and it is only by the development and cultivation of moral virtues, and sterling qualities that this good can be effected; if the necessity for instilling christian motives, for acting upon high christian principle be not deeply felt by a governess, her pupils may be fine scholars, but they will never be good christians.

In all that relates to education, consistency and harmony should prevail, and I again repeat that the basis of education must be obedience and attention, the faculties of judgement and reflexion must also be duly cultivated and strengthened by habit, but the youthful imagination should not be too much developed. Good sense is far more useful to females than imagination, the latter misleads, while the former directs; it is an error to suppose that in a well directed education, it suffices to awaken the

intellectual qualities, and give attention to accomplishments; the development of reason, jugement, reflexion must be continued during the whole time devoted to education, and the cultivation of these faculties will in all probability prove of the greatest utility, during the whole course of existence. Without the habit of regularity, no solid education can be obtained.

If the education of young people be under a judicious direction, they will not be brought up only to please, but to make proper use of the talents with which it has pleased providence to endow them; and to find happiness and contentment in the fulfilment of that share of duty, which falls to the lot of all human beings, in whatever station of life they may be placed.

It could be wished, that all governesses should feel the necessity of leading children patiently to bear the disappointments of this world; to be submissive in the hands of the Almighty, and to feel and understand that whatever may be their rank in society, they may have to undergo trials to which it is their duty humbly to submit.

In early age let children be taught to obey their parents and teachers, let them be made submissive and docile, above all let them learn to feel that they have a duty to perform towards their superiors; as they advance in life let them be taught resignation, therefore in all stages of education, obedience must be enforced, but in a manner suited to the different ages of the pupils, slaves are not wanted, youthful feelings should be controlled, not checked; we should endeavour to form reasonable beings, able to encounter with fortitude the trials that may await them.

Again I say, that obedience is the first duty of children to their parents and teachers. All I have said of obedience, equally relates to attention and judgement, which require cultivation; for, although natural, these qualities may lay dormant for want of proper development.

In order to make docile and obedient children, governesses must, by their firmness of mind, forbearance and

mildness, acquire the esteem, respect, and confidence of their pupils; the word of a preceptress should never be doubted, her commands must be implicitly obeyed, which will never be the case, unless she herself, be mild, consistent, and just.

To fix the attention, and develop reflection, governesses must be steady, and enlightened, in fact they should possess the qualities they desire to cultivate in their pupils, and be convinced that example is far better than precept.

The education of men, is carried beyond the age of twenty, while that of females is generally supposed to be finished at seventeen or eighteen. Nothing can more forcibly prove the necessity and advantage of obtaining the services of efficient governesses, who understand the difficult art of teaching, who have regularity and method, feel the value of time, and make the best use of the few years devoted to female education.

To attain this end, governesses must never forget that all instruction should tend to education; no absolute division ought to exist between education and instruction, they should lend each other constant and mutual support. In order to do justice to the children intrusted to their care governesses must be fully impressed with the conviction that a good education should not be mechanical, neither should it be the exercise of the memory alone. Let no one claim the honorable title of governess who does not possess strong religious principles, a cultivated understanding, a benevolent mind, and an affectionate heart. In fact to be a good governess, it is necessary to enter into the feelings of a mother, to comprehend the progress of the infant faculties, to understand the means of developing them, and never to lose sight of the present and future welfare of the pupils.